War Machine was nearly destined to become another forgotten film on the dust pile of Netflix’s original movies. On paper it doesn’t seem like that would be the case: War Machine was a $60 million Brad Pitt-starring satirical war movie based on a best-selling book and directed by a fairly established director, David Michôd (Animal Kingdom, The Rover). But middling reviews and the Netflix marketing machine had caused the film to disappear into the back of the “Netflix Originals” category — for everyone except for the Pentagon.

The film has picked up an unexpected fanbase among the federal employees at the Pentagon, where it has become the hot topic of the moment among an audience who you would expect to hate the anti-Afghanistan War satire.